Bax Antibody

Bcl-2 blocks cell death following a variety of stimuli and confers a death sparing effect to a certain hematopoietic cell lines following growth factor withdrawal. Bcl-2 appears to function in several subcellular locations yet lacks any known motifs that would confer insight into its mechanism of action. A more recently identified protein, designated as Bax (Bcl-2 associated X protein, Bcl2-L-4, BCL2L4 associated X protein) has exstensive amino acid homology with Bcl-2 and both homodimerizes and forms heterodimers with Bcl-2. Overexpression of Bax accelrates apoptotic death induced by cytokine deprivation in an IL-3 dependent cell line and Bax also counters the death repressor activity of Bcl-2.